God in the Pits Review

God in the Pits: Confessions of a Commodities Trader by Mark Andrew Ritchie Rating: ★★ Date Finished: December 29th, 2015 Reading Time: Two days

I was fooled by the title. The “commodities trader” part is maybe 5% of the book, while “god” is the majority of the book. I naively expected the story to follow a plot where Ritchie starts seriously grappling with his faith (and morals) once he strikes it rich. Instead, it turns out he’s spent his entire life grappling with his faith and is extremely ethical and charitable on his path to success.

I found the story’s progression from countless tragedies/setbacks/adventures to millionaire to be strange. It’s as if he wrote the book knowing that being Joe Ritchie’s brother would garner a certain amount of interest in the book, but then made a point to write as little as possible about trading.

Mark Ritchie certainly has a life’s story worth being told, but the dull narration and constant questions of faith detracted from my enjoyment.